"Greece’s European rescuers should offer the country a clear choice. If it embraces tough reforms, it will get fresh funds and a gradual reduction of its official debts. But if it continues its current path of inaction, it may not be able to avoid an exit."

We Europeans should let the Germans decide with whom they want to share their currency. The problem is that they haven't made up their minds yet after more than 2 years of crisis. Everything everybody will take their course.
But Mrs Merkel has always been too slow and her decisions half baked. This attitude has had a huge cost on Greek economy. Who is going to pay it. Are the Greeks again the ones to blame?
For God's sake Germans make up your minds NOW. You want Greece, Portugal and whoever else outside the Euro or not? If you decide to keep us in the Eurozone than there is no other road than the "Modest Proposal" of Prof. Varoufakis.
You have to decide fast. Greece is dying...

Not Germany (talking about Germany means also France, Finland, Austria, Luxemburg) has to decide for Greece wheter to stay or to leave, it's YOUR decision!
If Greece wants to stay and northern european countries have to transfer money to Greece there will be conditions to be fulfilled. And it's not to destroy your country, but to make sure that the money is used in a sustainable way, because these countries simple cannot offer money of an unlimited quantity.
As you wrote, most greek people have realized where the proplem is.
And you're right, Merkel and Sarkosy screwed up the last two years.

Every single cent transfered from the rest of Europe to Greece is a transfer from poor to rich... cause the Greeks are not even able to catch their elites, so money transfers are the substitutes of the money they could take from their own millionaires. Progressive taxing (wealth transfers from rich to poor) technically almost impossible if you transfer money between different countries as long as there's not common European taxing. The nasty Greeks believe that the rest of Europe is having a money tree in the Garden, but in fact much poorer Eastern Europeans have to subsidize their decadence (e.g. slovaks and estonians have much lower incomes and bail them out!)

It is sad that The Economist favors violating property rights and retroactive legislation.
But why is it that i'm saddened by reading that newspaper ? After all, it constantly advocates inflation, monetary manipulation. It was so in the 1960's, it is so now.
Won't people understand that, behind technocratic jargon and euphemisms, there are principles of law and morality ?
Inflation is theft of purchasing power, it hurts fragile people and redistribute in favor of the powerful, be it the government or financial institutions. Redistribution without an act of Parliament.

Greece will default yet once again on its debts. Nothing new; it has defaulted many times in the past. Greeks are much better at promising to repay debts than actually doing so. The huge question is whether Portugal, Spain, Italy, Belgium and France will follow on the road to default. One thing is certain. The socialistic/communistic lies of Euro politicians will severely punish Euro taxpayers for a long long time. Their socialistic programs are finished. They better wake up soon and realize that their "CO2 causes global warming" fraud is also revealed as such and will not be supported any longer. Hopefully their voters will severely punish the fraudsters at the IPCC and the politicians who supported this fraud.

I don't understand why Greece defaulting on their Euro-denominated bonds means they must leave the Euro. If a smallish American state defaulted on their bonds, they wouldn't have to stop using the dollar. Instead of a policy of periodic devaluation, Greeks could just cut their prices.

Defaulting on the debt is merely the start, addressing the immediate problem. But the underlying cause of the problem is a weak economy locked into a currency that shackles them to strong economies. And because they are locked in, they cannot take the traditional medicine of devaluing.

Having defaulted, they will not be able to get support from the international money markets for many many years. Therefore they must devalue. To do that, they will first have to leave the euro.

At the end of the day, it is just a question of independence. A country that is no longer in control of its own currency and interest rates is no longer independent.

This "medicine" has been taken many times in the last 60 years by Greece and all it provided was a hole in the water. Still a non-competitive economy, after all those quick fixes. We must institute structural reforms asap, and elect those (few) politicians that are capable of understanding and implementing them!

There are 3 communist parties in Greece, all represented in parliament. Their latest poll ratings are: 13%, 12%, and 12%. Yes, 37% of Greeks are communists! Add to that a further 10% who are 'Marxists' of one sort or another and you get the full picture. That is, around 1 in 2 Greeks is a communist. Conclusion? Let them go. Let them go on to meet their Marxist destiny. After all, isn't that the natural home of a failed state (Cuba, N. Korea)?

The 'other half'as you refer to it, are just 'right wing communists'. Mummy and daddy feed them and get them a job (through contacts) even up to the age of 40. Then they (maybe) marry some woman with fake blond hair and smelly breath that bosses them about and humiliates them in public.

OK? I think that's clear now. Please leave the EU/EZ. We don't want you. What we know now about your society fills us with disgust. That is our right - and it is your right to continue like that but OUTSIDE the EU.

Thanks for providing all your simplistic "answers" (and generalizations) to our complex problems, but I still wonder what a right wing bigot is doing on the Economist site...
You do sound like a disgruntled guy of Greek origin who tries to get back "to Greece" for what it's done to him (forced to leave the country?). Had I left Greece 15 years ago when I had the chance I might have adopted the same attitude, so I can't really blame you, but do try to reign in on your personal feelings and see things with a cooler head. Like westerners are supposed to do, you know...

I will only say this in response to your absurd comments. I am proud to be called a 'right-wing bigot' because - from 1967 to 1973 - no Greek ever had to pick through rubbish bins in order to find food. You have created your communist paradise and now you must live in it (far away from the rest of us).

Submitting budgets to the euro-level for approval is an appalling affront to democracy that can only stoke civil unrest at some point. Surely a better route would be to agree stringent universal accounting standards across the euro-zone and require budgets to be publicly audited at the euro-level. This would increase transparency, enhance democracy and shine a light on some of the dingier areas of statecraft in Europe. Most importantly though, it would not impinge on sovereignty.

Having had the misfortune to buy into a business in Greece in 2007 I am avidly following events. It seems to me that people underestimate the amount of tax avoidance. ON the rather small but touristy island I am on I know of no Greek business owner who operates with a till that is actually worked as it should be. My Greek accountant had a fit when i suggested I would like to pay tax! "You Aussies are mad! "he said. "No,"I replied" that's why my country is rich and yours isnt!"
A fairer and more open and easily followed tax system, a tax amnesty where maybe 20% of unpaid taxes is accepted in lieu of the full amount owed and the realisation by ALL Greeks that taxes must be paid if the state is to survive are needed. The first 2 are easily achieved by legislation, the last unfortunately needs a complete change of mind set that maybe beyond too many in Greece.

I do not see that a exit of Greece from the single currency would be a disaster.

It is widely not understood that joining a singe currency is tough. Because?
It will only ONE monetary policy be done for ALL countries. And if a country is not able to cope with, it has not the opportunity just to devalue, as before. The only way to get back on track is to cut costs. And this leads directly to wages, pensions......

And Greece was in full knowledge of all advantages and disadvantages of a single currency.
But it decided to join. So the question is: How dare is a country, if it knows clearly it would not be able to cope with the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, French....

But Greece, its elites, has intended to be bail-out by the North right from the beginning!
And the Greek's working class is now paying for, because its elites betrayed its folks (Greeks) and the other Euro-members. To join a single currency is not the same as joining a land in which milk and honey flows. All these was known by the Greek elites.

All means, to solve what Greece is liable for, lead on roads which lead in tragedies.
And Greeks are very intimate with tragedies.

But it should not prevent the Greeks to leave the Euro and implement the Drachme again.
Furthermore a haircut is needed to include the rich thus they also pay.
Afterward Greece would be better off, definitely.

Why the obsession with erasing the persistent current account deficit in Greece through Euro exit? There are other less disruptive ways of doing this. If the Greek demos is not prepared to accept the grind of deflation, why not suspend the single market and reintroduce import tariffs from within the EU? Granted this would set an unfortunate precedent, but would certainly be less dangerous than euro exit, and might have the beneficial side-effect of increasing government revenues. If other European states are really keen to hold the euro together they will not penalise Greece with reciprocal protectionism.

Apparently, all that the economic experts can offer are ways to treat the symptoms, but nobody is able to pinpoint the cause. We need to realise that the whole of the universe is based on principles. The laws setting the boundaries in which we are able to sustain human existence. For your information Google “The World Monetary Order”.http://theworldmonetaryordertocome.blogspot.com/2010/11/introduction.html

Greece failure is the failure of the EU and its ignoramus political/economic underpinning. You do not cancel the game if there is a paddle in the 2.5% of the field. I am supporter of a single currency for Europe, it has more positives then negatives but this has nothing to do with the EU Parliament or EU Commission that should have never been created.

a) The decision to solve the Greece’s problems via a Ponzi scheme of bonds sale has been an illiterate one – it indebted the Greeks beyond recovery. The ECB has (should have) monetary jurisdiction over Greece and it should have been the ECB bonds – a small blip.

b)The adoption of American “genius” rating agencies should have been banned. Debt restructuring is a better way to warn the other creditors.

c)The ECB QE mechanism should have been implemented early instead of damaging procrastination.

The European public is so misinformed about the Greek crisis they would better keep quite. Europe and IMF are destroying Greece in a systematic way. They should be ashamed. Wages in the public sector and pensions have fallen more than 50% since 2009. That means that with huge rise in taxes the purchasing power has drpped 70%. Yet the Economist says that salaries have dropped "a little". The Greek program (and the Portuguese one) is a complete disaster and instead of doing a little self criticism they take the easy route of blaming the Greeks for everything.
We Greeks (and Portuguese and Italians) don't care any more about North European racist attacks. We just feel sorry that the Europe that we dreamt of never existed and that the German way of thinking that has lead to 2 world wars still prevails.
Greece is a very rich country the troika have managed to turn it into a desert. Well done Europe. Well done Mrs Merkel. If Germany really wanted Greece out of the Eurozone this would have already happened. But Greek real estate is good and worth many times the current debt so there are few chances (unfortunately) for Greece to leave the Eurone. We poor Greeks are stuck with the Germans.

You have to take responsibility for yourself and you shouldn't accuse others for own mistakes! And no, you poor greeks are not stuck with the evil germans, you're stuck with yourself, because the rich greeks left you alone. They transfered their untaxed cash to other countries.
Why isn't that mentioned by your newspapers? What are your politician doing against that?

However, you have to face your problems and work on that. When that will be done, you can be sure that the evil germans will be the first to help you out of your mess!

We know all too well our mistakes. The are done now they are a thing of the past. The question is how to move forward and change the system in a way that really works. But what Europe proposes is destroying the country instread of mending it. If your media says otherwise its not our problem. Our problem is surviving in a European Union that with Germany foremost has destroyed the values upon which it is founded.
Where is "democracy" in all this troika thing. Why should the Greeks believe in neoliberal economy as a way foreword for their country?
I am sorry sir you are destroying my country and whether you think you help or not I don't care.

Well, it's not about neoliberal economy in this case. The problem is the pegged currency regime in the EMU forcing 17 heterogeneous countries in a straitjacket. In that situation there a only a few possibilities to solve the situation for Greece: Internal or external devaluation and to build up a working economic/fiscal structure at the same time to become competitive.

And I agree with you as you write that the internal devaluation (cutting wages and public spendings) is destroying your country. I think the only possibility for greece is to leave the EMU, because of the consequences for the greek people.
I don't see there any other way to get out of the mess for Greece. So, it's populism to say Germany (or other northern european countries) are destroying your country as it is to talk about lazy greeks. It's up to your politicians which way they choose and they have chosen to put all the pressure on the ordinary people. Greece is a sovereign country and it's not up to Germany to order how you guys have to live.

Europe for you guys was only taking, not giving. You have been a member with net-gains. You dreant of a Europe that would support you forever. That was basically your dream. And if you ask any Greek their honest opinion of the West and the European Union, you 'll get curses.

I write as Briton who has known Greece for 47 years. The Economist has fallen into the same trap as the vast majority of politicians outside the Mediterranean: suggesting remedies that take no account of either the control the Greek voters have over the situation or the deep wound that still remains following the Axis occupation that saw thousands starve. The Troika is universally hated, and the EU is viewed as a new occupying power. There is no way the Greek people are going to allow the EU to run their economy or dictate spending priorities, as has been shown by the Government's rejection today of the proposal to effectively turn Greece into a protectorate. Greeks understand very clearly that fiscal union means colonisation.

German membership of the euro has kept her currency artificially low which has fuelled her great export success, just as it has kept Greece's artificially high and led to this crisis. It follows that Greece and Germany must no longer share the same currency: after the parting of the ways, the German currency will revalue (which is only fair) and the Greek currency will devalue (which is also fair).

Too many articles have focussed on Greece leaving the euro. A less traumatic divorce would be for the successful northern countries to leave the euro, so that it becomes a Mediterranean currency, weaker but still intact.

The wickedness of the euro has always been the way it furnishes strong nations with a currency weaker than they would have if independent, boosting their exports, while correspondingly shackling weaker countries to a currency they simply cannot afford. Such a currency will always be divisive.

You can't split the eurozone into a northern and a southern zone. The latter would immediately be tagged as the "league of deadbeats." Ireland will definitely not join. Italy is certainly out (unless you split the country). Spain is healthy enough that its participation is highly doubtful, especially if Italy and France are not in. France is, of course, joint at the hip with Germany. So the club is down to Portugal and Greece. Oh, and Cyprus.

The only way to break up the eurozone is for the PIIGS to adopt the US dollar. Only the dollar has the prestige and stability to make it work. The US runs a large current account deficit. Monetary policy is extremely accommodating. But atlas, they hate Americans in Spain and Greece.

Indeed, the US and some GIIPS have something in common: current account deficits and a preference for loose monetary policies. The GIIPs liked printing already before joining the Euro. And the dollar status would protect them better from inflation. Maybe the Greeks join you, 'cause they hate the Germans and the entire EU as well ;)

And,contrary to what you say, Spain is in fact extremely unhealthy, with a cataclysmic level of youth unemployment and a housing market that has imploded.

It is good to be tagged as a 'league of deadbeats', because that will keep your currency low, so boosting exports, curbing imports and keeping labour costs cheap in international terms thus encouraging inward investment. Greece was fine with the drackma. She will be fine again once she has an independent floating currency permitting her tourist-trade to compete with Turkey's.

Nobody in Europe is going to adopt the dollar because, again, to adopt another's currency is to become that nation's colony. A nation that abandons its currency abandons its independence.

No informed non-Greek I know in Greece thinks there is any chance of Greece using the same currency as Germany this time next year. We knew it was all over in May 2010, but the politicians refused to grasp the nettle. Now the only question is whether the euro itself can survive, in any form.

"The deep trauma the AXIS left"? I'm a Romanian living in Bulgaria and speaking 3 major Balkan languages, which would probably qualify my knowledge of the Balkan region as quite good.
Given the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, which left us barefoot in front of an empire, we should probably be asking damages for the millennium to come. Shall we consider that when we talk money and aids for Eastern Europe? Why haven't we all taken a clear stance to pay the dues to the Czechs after being

No, sir, no, with all due respect, pampering Greece from mid ''80 has proven to be a terrible mistake. Should we consider Greece historically as well, I think Europe has been paying its dues to this country more than in any other case.

Although not a big fan of the German-French politics, Britons haven't done much either. Cameron government left it all to the Germans and French to deal with it, while Greece's only mitigation to the issue was as always "give us the money, and then give us some more".

2.4 M people were employed in the private sector and 1.5 M in the public sector, states a gentleman. How come nobody actually sees this as an issue?

I am bemused, Read Watch. Why are you upset about the historical designation 'Axis'? On 28 October each year, in every town in Greece, school-children carrying flags parade, in memory of Ochi Day, the day in 1940 when Metaxas gallantly rejected Mussolini's ultimatum and the Greeks joined the Allies.

So, yes, it is not just the memory of the Nazis but of the Italian Fascists too, which is kept alive in Greece even today.

I am not saying the Greeks should be given special consideration because of what they suffered in the Occupation. I am simply explaining to people why the Greeks react so badly to being told what to do by a German Chancellor. And Sarkozy even referred to the German-French entente as an 'axis' ... which was grossly insensitive.

What is going on is a form of imperialism, just economic rather than military. And the Greeks are perfectly aware of that.

I'm not upset, only that this is hardly a valid argument per se, just because this is kept and remembered as a tradition dear to their hearts by all Greeks.

My point was that history cannot be the basis of the current situation. A long time has passed, Europe has helped the Greek economy quite a lot.

What people are entitled to historically and what the current times present them with are quite different, but surely that cannot be the basis to offer help, over and over again.

Semantic games are hardly insensitive when economic reforms fail to happen, or better said, when (Greek?) governments fail to happen reform.
And although insensitive (and I'm far from defending the current French political line), Sarkozy's game was quite intentional (perhaps to partly warn the Germans).

It's a very un-European thing to consider that lowering pension from 4000 EUR to 3000 or 2500 is a very harsh thing to do, yet the same people fail to understand the economic situation in the entire Eastern Europe, where a pension amounts to 250 EUR the most (average being between 70 - 120 EUR per month). And also fail to discuss it.

I am not concerned about history either. I am merely explaining the mindset of Greeks, and why, if you wish them to do something, it is wise to take into account their very strong nationalist feelings and pride in their independence.

I completely agree with you that in Eastern Europe the situation is bad too (but remember, when comparing pensions, to take into account the cost-of-living). A few months ago, I attended a talk by a member of the Slovak party SaS, who pointed out that Slovakia is far poorer than Greece and yet is being required to contribute to the bail-out! And think of sad Estonia, which has joined the euro just in time to help pay for its funeral. Tragic.

My point is that in May 2010, when we in Greece recognised that the drackma was coming back, the euro itself didn't seem in danger. Now, because the politicians have dithered and refused to recognise the elephant in the room, it is very doubtful that the euro itself can survive in any form.

From the British perspective, the euro was always an idea dreamed up before cocktails and executed after. To try to link economies at different stages of development and at different points in the economic cycle was daft. It'll work with nations already close (e.g. UK & Ireland, Greece & Cyprus, the Benelux nations) but to try to tie Finland and Portugal together..??

I believe that the situation at hand calls for a course on how to change the mindset, if not for the Euro zone, then at least for the sake of the European Union. Always finding a scapegoat doesn't seem to be doing the trick any longer.

And although the cost of living in Greece is higher, although in most cases, times smaller than in most of the CEE countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia etc), wages have been over-inflated.
What always amazed me is how come people on low incomes, such as Romanian, Bulgarians, and other countries, can can Greece a cheaper holiday spot than their own countries? Why not France?

I'm afraid that the crisis in Greece has triggered much bigger problems and that nobody is really paying attention to it. It destabilised Italy (there same problems as in Greece) and Ireland, as investors couldn't trust such an economy (although it was performing well).

France, despite their own financial troubles, seemed to find a balance and a solution, and even though its debt is a few times higher than Spain's, investors still believe in that country.
And that is mainly because they've proved they can.

EU slapped Romania, or Bulgaria, or Hungary for not complying with the European standards. And that is right (tough love).
But in the same time, even after 25 years in the EU, Greece has the same level of corruption as Romania and Bulgaria according to the EU. This is simply outraging.

Can this be a trick from the EU? Yes, I admit, it can. But let's also admit that it must have some truth in it, otherwise it wouldn't stand up a second.

Not a Greek tragedy, just a little fairy tale!
Once upon a time there was a poor little boy living at the edge of the village. He kept himself warm with a small fire. The comfortable villagers felt pity for him and allowed him to move into the village, where he and his fire were at least somwhat sheltered from the fierce winds blowing outside.

The well meaning burghers of the village thought they should help the little boy prosper further and, as a first step, to help him build a sturdy shelter. And so their village council provided him with lumber and all the other things needed to build a modest home.

Alas, instead of building a shelter, the little boy began burning the building materials to make his fire larger and himself more comfortable. Naturally some people took notice and called the local fire department. Taadoo, tadoo!...rushed the fire fighters to the scene..., but now something strange happened: Instead of dousing the flames and reprimanding the little boy severely when there was still time, they added even more lumber to the fire! Worse, some of the wealthiest burghers, the ones who benefitted the most from selling the building materials to the village council on credit, even cheered them on! The fire was finally getting so large that it became uncontrollable and burnt down most of the village.

Naturally the burghers who still had homes, angry now and looking for culprits, expelled the little boy from what was left of the village and took immediate steps for rebuilding it. This just as naturally included the help of the very fire department and the cheering burghers who let things get out of hand in the first place. Good luck to them all!

The world seems to be divided into those who think Greece should be allowed to fail as a state (i.e. no more money and enter default)and those who believe default would be the equivalent of a comet hitting the earth and wiping out all human life.

Youe newspaper appears to fall into the latter category, which begs the question to what extent groupthink (because that is clearly what it is) can so distort the thinking of ostensibly intelligent people that they relinquish all semblance of logic and clarity of thought.

Greece should never have joined the Euro in the first place and should leave it now, allowing insurances to recompense the creditors. Simple.

Heres the big idea guys. Try to understand it. Lend money to profligate countries and you stand to lose. Put those countries into the Euro club and you give them a facade of credit worthiness that is a fiction. Let them leave, together with other countries whose productivity will never match their greed, and you may have a better Europe. One banks can confidently lend to and so stimulate demand and GDP growth.

The flip side of cow dung is not honey. Either way things are going to end badly. Departure from the eurozone is no solution for Greece, since there's no workable way to reintroduce the drachma. Capital is already fleeing the country. Any preparation for a switch will cause the flow to accelerate. Banks will fail. The economy will grind to a halt as money stops circulating.

After the actual reintroduction of the local currency, the opposite occurs. Goods will rapidly disappear from shops as import ceases. Local producers will not be able to get necessary supplies. Gas pumps will start to run dry. Farmers, to the extent that they can, will ship foodstuff abroad. Thus a hyperinflation spiral takes hold of the country. At this point, people are probably already rioting in the streets. Tourism will collapse as a result.

It is less complex to re-introduce the drackma than it was to join the euro, because the New Drackma will start at an exchange rate of 1:1, so no complex messing with bank accounts, salaries, etc. It will then devalue by 40% - 60%. Also, the origin of all euro notes is embedded in their serial numbers, so the 'physical' is not an issue. The big problem is personal debt denominated in euros, which is why nations like Germany leaving 'from the top' is the more attractive option.

Yes, it will be hell for a year or two, with foreign goods twice the price. But that will encourage the opening of factories to make the goods in Greece that were previously imported. And once the new businesses are tooled-up, growth will be fantastic.

Tourism wants and needs an independent floating currency.

"At this point, people are probably already rioting in the streets." Umm? Haven't you noticed? They are right now, under the euro.

It won't work. Just look at the Argentina dollar peg scenario. The physical currency was in circulation already. The only change was the loss of the 1:1 exchange guarantee. Still, the effect was devastating. And whatever benefit you get from the depreciation will be short lived. Workers are not stupid. They will demand higher wages. Before you even recover from the disruption the advantage will be gone.

Certainly, for two years Argentina went through hell. But now it is more or less in line with other non-tiger South American economies, not brilliant, not a basket-case.

As reported by Bloomberg: "Mario Blejer, who managed Argentina’s central bank in the aftermath of the world’s biggest sovereign default, said Greece should halt payments on its debt to stop a deterioration of the economy that threatens the European Union. 'This debt is unpayable,' Blejer said. 'Greece should default, and default big. A small default is worse than a big default and also worse than no default.'”

My point is that there are no good solutions: we just have to agree on the least bad solution, and the longer the delay in detaching the Greek economy from the German, the worse the aftermath will be.

We have been expecting Greece to default and leave the euro since May 2010 when the debt became visibly untenable. When the history books come to be written, I am sure that month will be seen as the crunch point when the inevitable should have been accepted, and acted upon there and then, to minimise the fall-out.

You have to amputate the leg before it infects the rest of the body. Will they have the guts to do that before 20 March?

The answer is to default. That's the whole idea behind having that option to begin with. Don't get me wrong, there should of course be a discussion but when it is clear what is going on it should be allowed to take place. Yes, people who invested in Greece will suffer but that's the point. Why should ordinary Germans pay the price for ssome idiot financiers who have lived the high life investing in junk?

Greece is already dead...two years now and the only thing tha imf and europeans do is taxes..taxes...taxes...There are no works and so no cash in market.This is not a plan guys, this is the end of a hole country.It is obvious that greeks have made a lot of mistakes but it is also obvious that measurements that are being taken are all wrong...

Have the wrong measures been recommended or have the right measures not been implemented in time? How much did Greece earn with privatizations so far? And what did it initially promise? How well are your tax system, judicial system and bureaucracy work now and how much has changed during the last 2 years? How much is Greece importing and exporting, and what besides food is it actually exporting? What exactly has happened so far to change things for the better?

This is the half truth...but you are right...But you also have to know that salaries are now at the half..can you imagine this?And apart from this we have about 10 new taxes for everybody.It sure that this way we will not solve this problem but we will create much more!

You don't want loans? What else? Gifted money? And others to fix your problems which you are incapable of fixing yourself? Who should gift you that money so that you can keep your European lifestyle while your country simply is not European by standards? Europan tax payers? What a decadence and arrogance! You seem to see it as your fundamental right to spend other people's money AND DEMAND that they fix your problems. You are complaining about wage cuts? Who tells you that you deserve more money? If you want more money, earn more money and don't ask others like a beggar, that's how a market economy works!! If you prefer socialism, I recommend you to leave Europe and start the failed experiment all over again. Eastern Europeans can tell you something about it. And they earn much less on average than Greeks, still manage to live within their means AND have to subsidize your decadent country. The banks will gift your country more than 100 bn and you do not even deserve that! What your country deserves is an exit from the EZ, nothing else!

"Sorry my friend". Neither are u my "friend", nor have you to be sorry to tell me that you prefer gifts to loans. And I am not sorry to dissappoint your decadence. Do you know what people are called which live at the expense of others and see that as their fundamental right? It starts with "P" and ends with "te" and has 8 letters

The point you have to understand is that feudal economics (that's what this is, not capitalism), is all about protecting wealth and collecting RENT as Adam Smith described it. This has nothing to do with the goals of advancing the economy for the industrialist or the ordinary workers as described by him. So the efforts have all been about how to get someone, anyone (Germans, Chinese...) to pay that RENT to those wealthy, dumb, greedy, and unproductive wealth owners.

No, I don't understand you guys and probably never will. But two things are certain: 1) You need entirely different decision makers immediatelly, another political culture and/or efficient watchdogs for your politicians, every other problem can be solved then eventually 2) Better get used to a lower living standard cause it should suit your economic output. I wonder if you have any clue how much money has already been gifted to Greece, partly paid by poorer European citizens. Before I'd gift a single Euro to Greece, I'd rather send billions to African or South American children because they really need the money and can't decide their destiny by themselves, unlike you! They couldn't sit here with a Laptop and read this post...

That's how it is potatoes!
Just take a look at greek newspapers and you'll learn who's responsible for the mess in greece. -Anybody else than the greeks! The French, the Dutch and preferentially the Germans who are not willing to finance this failed country called greece.
I completly lost my respect for that country!